With the dissolution of his band The Ambulars, songwriter Michael Cantor has moved his attention to his blossoming solo project The Goodbye Party. This latest undertaking carries many themes over from his old group, including the jangly power-pop tonality evocative of Teenage Fanclub that makes songs into anthems. But going solo has also given Cantor room to explore other avenues of his musical inclination, giving rise to tunes that aren’t necessarily fashioned to be played onstage in a high energy environment. Some of the more sedate songs take an almost mournful tone, best described by the self-coined genre descriptor “heavenly blues.” This distinct flavor of jaded melancholy seems to permeate the majority of Cantor’s solo output and stands almost at odds with The Ambulars’s bubbly light-hearted tone. However, it puts on prominent display another side to the artist, while also carrying over enough artistic idiosyncrasy to be unmistakably, patently Michael Cantor. The Goodbye Party will be opening this evening’s Sunday billing at LAVA Space with Richmond, VA’s Atta Girl, Ohio transplant and Father/Daughter Records artist Addie Pray, and power-pop rock ‘n’ rollers Missing Earth. Lava Space, (Please contact one of the acts or venue for more info.), 7:30pm, $5-$7, All Ages – Bryce Woodcock
